RallyNorth.net

Ranger woes continue

Friday, January, 11 By Hector Longo
Staff writer

Injuries have truly put a chokehold on Methuen and the problems continue.

First, the Rangers lost Edwin Gonzalez to a sprained ankle and Matt Merritte to an inadvertent Christmas tourney pop in the jaw by a teammate.

Gonzalez came back only to see senior Eagle-Tribune All-Star Romeo Diaz go down with a sprained ankle in practice. "Romeo's is like the third time in two years he's hurt it," said coach Rich Barden. "He's got to do a better job taping it in practice, and taking care of it."

Diaz is expected back with the 3-5 Rangers facing a key stretch against Tewksbury tonight, Charlestown at home Sunday and Central Catholic Monday.

There is more bad news, though, as junior Chris Murach came out of the Billerica game Tuesday night with what looks like a knee injury, possibly an MCL problem.

"He's started every game for us and played a ton of minutes," said Barden of the junior. "And now we're not sure how long he's out for."

One final Ranger note, the comeback of senior David Koerner, from a broken leg in football, looked to be ahead of schedule when his name popped up in the boxscore Tuesday night. That was indeed a misprint. Koerner, who is deep into rehab, didn't play.

"He wants to be back for the end of the season but we're going to be real cautious with him," said Barden. "He has an important baseball season (he's one of the region's top returning pitchers) and he's looking forward to that."